Cocoa Republic

Downtown Green Roof Project

Cocoa Republic is a key sponsor of IAMovement’s project to bring the first rooftop garden to Trinidad & Tobago! The project is ongoing and we need your support! Check out the project on Indiegogo!

The following is the project description, reproduced with permission, from IAMovement’s Indiegogo project page:

“IAMovement is a non-profit organization founded in early 2014 aiming to effect positive social and environmental change in Trinidad & Tobago. We understand that when people lose connection with nature, a host of other social and health issues follow. Many such issues are now prevalent in T&T – such as over-consumerism, materialism, and violence.

Green roofs bring the deep creativity and wisdom of nature into the most desolate and underutilized urban spaces. They provide valuable inspiration and retreat from the hectic office. They assist the building’s mechanical systems. They even provide a cooling effect on a hot day and critical stormwater retention, all while growing food! This particular green roof has a deeper intention though, and that is to act as a node of nature-based inspiration to the leaders of our nation’s education system. Its design inspires that through the symbology in the geometric forms of the garden beds and the calming effect of natural, local vegetation.

Trinidad now imports over over 90% of its food, despite having ideal growing conditions year-round. This is largely because as a country which has thrived on the fossil fuel industry for many decades, our farming industry has suffered as the population gravitated instead to big industry and commercial enterprise. Port of Spain is now unfortunately a stressful environment for people, plants and animals to exist. Implementing green roofs can help to change that.

Furthermore, the act of growing food will be championed. Food sovereignty is a matter of great national importance, and if we can grow vegetables on the roof of a high rise building in downtown Port of Spain, we can certainly grow food on the fertile soils at our homes!

Please help us bring this needed change to the heart of our capital city and to the head of our education system.”